Chapter. 18. Railed (18)
****
“Hmm. Ugh…”
“Lord Voltaeus!”
“Voltaeus! You didn’t forget this or that again, did you? Look at me. What is my name? What about him? “Do you know where this is?”
“Uhmmm….”
Volteus got up quickly. And
“committed a mortal sin.”
My face became even more grim as I saw myself being grabbed and sewn up by Naelda.
“Oh, well, I didn’t know that either, and I didn’t know that Shard Knights are weak to mental shock – yay!”
“I’m going to kill you. “That potion is a very expensive one that also has anesthetic properties?”
“Damn it, it still feels like my flesh is being stitched! “Do you expect a nine-year-old to stay still when he sees a needle sticking under his eye?”
“Do you act like a nine-year-old when you tease him? “Then I’ll treat you like a child.”
Voltaeus blames himself and Naelda is shameless. Seeing all the drivers gathered together, it seemed like the train’s maintenance had already been completed, just as Volteus had said.
“There will be some scars, but they will heal quickly. Voltaeus, you too were quite shocked, so don’t cry like that.”
“You can’t do that. Just because the wound heals doesn’t mean the memories of being hurt disappear. For a Shard Knight, memory is like lifespan. “The professor aspired to become a Shard Knight, so the memories of being tortured by me as a boy may one day come back as a great anger that will consume his spirit.”
Uh… I feel bad for being so sorry. In the first place, I pushed my face in at an angle that could cause serious injury just by looking at it. Volteus I knew that I wasn’t used to that person, but I didn’t know that he would faint.
“Um… Lord Voltaeus? “Can I ask you something?”
“anything.” While
Naelda
was biting off her hair on a needle, I asked a downcast Volteus.
“The trade between shards and shard knights. How does that happen specifically? They usually say that mental training is important for Shard Knights, and when I looked at it earlier, it seems like they become incapable of fighting just by being greatly agitated…”
Although he didn’t say it outright, ‘Isn’t Shard Knight a flawed job?’ Volteus answered the nuanced question seriously.
“….okay. Now that I think about it, there are a lot of things I need to tell you.”
With a crackling sound, Volteus’ hand rummaged deep inside his chest.
In his hand, he held a small box similar to the one Naelda showed him.
****
“Try your hand like you did in the tail compartment.”
Phew-
“….It was true. “I thought maybe I was mistaken.”
“Uh… is this activated?”
“okay. Do you feel a different sensation at your fingertips now? I feel a little dizzy. Or what efforts are you making right now?”
“no? “I just put my hand on it.”
“….good night. “Move your hand this way this time.”
“yep.”
“Don’t touch it at all, just wave your hand as if you’re clearing away the fog around the crystal-”
Flash!
Craddeudeudeuk!!
“Wow!”
“Get back! right now!”
As soon as I moved my hand near it, the crystal began to glow and grow with terrifying force towards my fingertips. If it weren’t for Naelda, who was waiting in advance, and quickly pulled me back, my palm would have been pierced by that transparent crystal by now.
Whiu~
“Baby, are you popular?”
“Didn’t you see me running in just now? “I thought you were going to kill me?”
“It means that I want you that passionately. Isn’t that right, Voltaeus? “What is the expert’s opinion?”
“I think the same thing. “This… is truly beyond my imagination.”
Voltaeus shrunk back to its original size and shook his head as he put the fragments that fell on the floor into the box.
“The ‘Piece of Dawn’ I have. And two colorless fragments that I kept in my possession because they were not suitable for me even though I had completed the soul mage’s verification. The colorless fragments, which each had ‘weak calf strength’ and ‘weak moving vision,’ responded uniformly to the professor. And very violently. “This level of talent has never been reported in any other city.”
“Talent…is it?”
“okay. Talent. Since each of the three fragments that do not merge with each other all reacted, in theory you have a fit for at least three colored fragments. “Because somewhere in the world, there must be colored fragments that will merge these colorless fragments.”
‘….Strange?’
Talent. It’s talent. Nowhere in my status window did I see something like ‘near-miraculous Shard Knight talent’ written down, but suddenly it turned out to be a talent that had never been recorded in human history.
Of course, having talent is not a bad thing, but I was a little concerned that the target was the ‘Shard Knight’ talent. After all, Shard Knight is a profession that poses a significant risk to its power, right?
Colored fragments with special powers and colorless fragments with normal powers. What both types have in common is that they take memories from a suitable Shard Knight in exchange for power.
Voltaeus seemed to have the same concerns as me, but his face didn’t look very comfortable as he explained about the Shard Knight.
“Unlike a wizard or an Oranite, a Shard Knight’s talent is a kind of… right. The right to sell yourself for more than others. “It’s a skill that can’t just be called good.”
“Then overwhelming talent means….”
“It means you will face more temptations. More power. More abilities. “It’s tempting to give up on yourself in order to achieve more.”
Sweet. Sweet.
“That is also the reason why I did not hand over these two shards that were just confirmed to be suitable for you.”
“…Are you afraid of losing your memories?”
“To be precise, it is very likely that young children will lose important memories.”
Volteus took the two boxes out of his arms and placed them on the floor.
“Research into what kind of memories fragments carry is still ongoing. “Nothing is clear, but there is at least one thing in common.”
“What is it?”
“All they take away are ‘good memories.’ From trivial to important. “They are all memories of good moments.”
Voltaeus quietly closed his eyes and traced his memories. He liked drinking tea, but he couldn’t remember when. I liked looking at the sky from up high, but for some reason, every time I took a chair, I would naturally lift the second chair and then put it down awkwardly.
In the place of that awkwardness, a memory of a different color took root. A vague but powerful memory, as if painted with a rough brush. A sharp metallic sound and the smell of blood. Untrained swordsmanship and moments of intense pain came with it.
“…I don’t know what I’ve lost either. “I can only vaguely guess that I lost some moment.”
“Then the more fragments you absorb…”
“The worse it gets. That is why your talent cannot be seen as a mere blessing.”
As more fragments are absorbed, memories of good moments disappear. The existence of a human remains as a shell, becoming a mixture of one’s own pain and the pain of others whose faces we do not know.
And the moment it goes beyond its limits,
it “becomes a monster.” “A monster full of malice that destroys everything around it.”
It is said that the Shard Knight will meet his end.
Volteus’s subdued voice and heavy eyes may be because the story he is telling me is the same as the story he is telling himself.
“Lord Voltaeus, how far along do you think you are now?”
“I do not know. “As I said, I don’t know what I’ve lost.”
“Is it common among Shard Knights to faint from agitation and say nonsense?”
“It’s not common….”
This means that there isn’t much left. The moment when Volteus becomes the monster he spoke of.
‘Oh my. This bastard… I guess he tried to lure a nine-year-old he met on the street into such a bottomless pit of work?’
His story told by Naelda. Contrary to the fact that he had already made up his mind to some extent, Volteus said that he did not give up on the survival of the people of the rail ship.
Combine his condition, the railship, and the sudden appearance of a talented boy…
“Have I been hired as your replacement?”
“I thought it was a talent too precious to pass up.”
“Lord Voltaeus… you’re not such a good person, are you?”
This conclusion emerges:
Voltaeus is the railship’s only knight-level combatant. It was obvious that without him, the people of the railship would become a blood clot to the swarming assassins.
No, it doesn’t even have to go as far as the assassin, it ends the moment he gets eaten by debris. After becoming a monster, it is clear that his first targets will be the railship people closest to Volteus.
So Voltaeus dragged the boy who had been wandering around the station onto the rail ship. Because his sense as a Shard Knight revealed the boy’s talent. To protect the rail ship after his death, knowing that the boy would have such a terrible future ahead of him.
‘…It’s a really dangerous situation.’
It never occurred to me that his good nature was a lie. So, Voltaeus is in a pretty desperate situation right now. While their aim for the rail ship is becoming more and more blatant, their own demise is looming before their eyes, so they are understandably impatient.
Sigh!
“Aya! Why are you hitting me! “Did I say something wrong?”
“Don’t say too much to Voltaeus. If he were a really bad guy, would he have told me this? They probably just shoved it in, thinking, ‘Fragments are good for the body.’ And you, Voltaeus! What should you do about that habit of blaming yourself? Why are people so negative? “I didn’t bring you here with the intention of just using you.”
“….What the professor said is an undeniable fact-”
Taaaak!
“Give me this. There’s already been a misunderstanding because of something you didn’t say, so what are you hiding? And when the misunderstanding grows, are you going to chew out the other eye as well? So, do I pull out my beautiful, expensive hair again and treat it? until when. Until the rumor spreads throughout Polgrad that you are an elf with alopecia areata?”
Sigh! Sigh! Sigh! Sigh!
As the atmosphere grew heavier, Naelda returned after organizing the potions and healing tools and began beating Volteus’ head mercilessly with a courtesy tool.
“There is certainly nothing wrong with what Voltaeus said. If you choose the path of a Shard Knight, you will pay the price for your happy moments, no matter how big or small. “It’s a step forward toward a predestined, unfortunate future.”
“step! “Is there one thing our shy Voltaeus hasn’t told you?”
Naelda, riding on Voltaeus’ back, raised her index finger.
“What I’m saying is that Voltaeus plans to raise you ‘properly.’ “Do you, smart guy, know the difference?”
“I don’t know.”
How do I know that?
“You know that Voltaeus wants to make you his replacement. Since this entire island is hostile to us, at least to replace him, you would have to be a fairly strong Shard Knight, even if not Lord Slayer level. To do that, we will have to absorb a lot of fragments.”
“So unless that’s the way to ruin people-”
“And the currency used to trade fragments and shard knights are good memories and happy memories?”
“….uh?”
Unlike Naelda’s sly expression, Volteus was turning his head as if he was looking at a distant mountain.
“I told you I wouldn’t give you any fragments right now. “You only have nine years’ worth of memories at most.”
“Ah, well….”
“I will raise a certain Shard Knight from a young age. I will raise it well without absorbing the fragments right away, and when it grows up, I will make it into a Shard Knight. That’s no different from saying that you will fill that person’s life with happy memories in some way. More memories so that you can absorb enough fragments to be strong enough and not become unstable. “I will make sure that the past that is with me becomes a pillar so strong and solid that it does not lose itself through just a few holes.”
“baby. To a Shard Knight, the existence of a ‘seed’ has that kind of meaning. A being who is cared for like one’s own flesh and blood, perhaps even more precious than one’s own. A being that needs to be filled with a bright life so that it doesn’t waver even when the moment of loss that is scheduled to happen someday comes. The moments of life that become more intense as the child takes on my duties. Wow, isn’t it so romantic? “In fact, what is rarer than the Shard Knight is the Shard Knight’s seed?”
“….Naelda.”
“why! You have such a personality that you can’t say anything like this even if you die! Just – ‘I led you to your destined destruction.’ You know how to say the same depressing thing, ‘Instead, I’ll make you a happy Professor Brastol.’ You can’t say the same thing, right? Am I wrong? Or would you like to say it yourself?”
“Lord Voltaeus. Was it something like that?”
“Uhm….”
Voltheus sat with his back turned, but the backs of his hands were visible at first glance, and he was sweating.
I thought you were a blunt person. It occurred to me that perhaps his original personality had disappeared along with his memories.
“Would you like me to tell you one more thing? If you had stayed in Brastol, you might have died. Um, no, he died. “I would have died for sure!”
what? suddenly?
“why?”
“That doesn’t mean there aren’t Shard Knights there. “I’m sure they noticed your talent sooner or later, right?”
“Yes… right?”
It was only yesterday that the content changed. Just as Voltaeus felt a strange feeling when he met me on the street, other Shard Knights will also find out at some point.
“Then, when you find out that your illegitimate child, who has been treated as worse than a street dog, is a child with ridiculous talent, what is the best way to use this child? one. He was raised diligently, without sparing any support from his family, and turned into the strongest professor on earth, Brastol. “I will just send them to the mainland’s great family and throw them into the mountain of debris there.”
.
.
.
.
.
Damn it. If I had left it alone, I would have died.
“…This is the second time.”
“There’s no doubt about it.”
Naelda was right. If he had remained in the Brastall family like this, he would have definitely died.
‘It must have been used as a kind of agglomerate to absorb fragments to the limit.’
Born out of wedlock. A past that was neglected.
They will never choose the direction in which I become stronger. Because it’s not that hard to imagine me becoming really strong and beyond their control.
Instead, there is a faster and more efficient way to use it. As Naelda said, throw it into a pile of debris.
Among the countless fragments, the ones that fit me are absorbed and become one within me, and at some point, the fragments that have melted into one completely consume me –
Taang!
Bbabam! Instead of a talented and dangerous person with a grudge against the family, a fragment of enormous value was created by combining his corpse and countless fragments into one!
There is only one way to increase the value of fragments. All the Shard Knight can do is absorb it and turn it into one. From the noble family’s point of view, this method of use is an extremely reasonable and safe method, so it is only natural to use the bastard, who is sure to be full of resentment, as a disposable fragment furnace and throw it away.
“Now, do you understand why Volteus, who is the saddest engineer among closed-minded people, brought in outsiders himself? Squire of Voltaeus~?”
“stop. It’s hard… to listen anymore. “Keuhum!”
In the end, Voltheus, whose face turned red as if he could not withstand Naelda’s waves of attacks, turned around and sat down.
“….It is obvious that the life of the poor magic train is not very enjoyable. Moreover, rail ships are being ostracized throughout Polgrad…”
“But, well… life on the train is not all that bad. Traversing the vast land is a privilege given only to train drivers of this era, and the train drivers who have overcome adversity with their backs to you can feel like family, and quite an interesting life awaits them, such as exploring railroad villages, soft land stations, and the ruins of the old continent. ….”
Volteus speaks passionately about ‘life and romance on the magic train’ while talking gibberish as if he were trying to introduce it himself.
“I will.”
“Although noble families reject it, ordinary citizens are always an object of envy…?”
“I do it. Doesn’t that mean that instead of guaranteeing you that kind of life, you’re asking them to take charge of the railship after your death? “Do you want me to join our unfortunate drivers by being tied to a tin train with no strings attached?”
“…You can refuse. If I had known that you had the talent of a water wizard, I wouldn’t have brought you here in the first place. “There are still many futures better than here.”
“No, how much wealth and glory will you enjoy? And even if I stayed here for 10 or 100 years in this town where there is nothing but rocks, would I be able to use even a level 1 magic? “I have to go out and find a place where mana is as concentrated as the rat’s tail, and suck on it, or I can use magic.”
A feeling of disbelief flashed across Voltaeus’s face, which was very timid. What follows next is relief. And I’m sorry.
“Great! End of story! Did you say you would stay? Did you make it clear? “You swore an oath in front of the elves who oversee the sacred mother tree and purity… so keep it?”
Unlike Volteus’s complex and subtle face, the expression on Naelda’s face, who had already come down from his back and was sitting down…
Heheuuuuk!
The corners of his mouth were smiling from ear to ear, to the point where I wondered if his facial skin was lacking.
“Where do you want to learn, youngest child? stoker? engineer?”
“Weren’t you going to protect the train with Lord Voltaeus?”
“That’s what all the kids here do. Voltaeus also works on bullets, right? What do you want to do? Are you thinking of becoming an engineer? Since the body is small, it would be perfect to keep it under the trachea and have it maintained!”
Have a happy life? Where do the happy memories that will endure the painful future go and the cruel scenes of child labor?
“Bo Voltaeus?”
“…A glass of water after hard work. A piece of cool air. “If you lower your standards, you can feel happiness even in small things.”
….This bastard?
Push profit!
The engine heated up and the train, which had completed maintenance, spewed boiling steam, showing that it was ready to run at any time.
“Report your departure to Brastol. “We’ll be leaving when the sun rises in about two hours.”
“I understand.”
“And the youngest… As I said before, if they contact me, I will give them as much time as possible.”
“Uh… are we going to continue like this?”
“Then we should go. Or is there anything else to do?”
“yes.”
Are these guys stupid? You’re running away from enemy territory, but you’re just going?
“how much.”
“many?”
“Did it take long?”
“Do you think it will be until departure time?”
Squeak –
Naelda responded by pushing the train door with her foot.
“Go quickly and come back. “After causing this mess, it’s probably too late to leave it behind.”
“yep.”
Slap!
Naelda glared at me as if she wanted to just tie it up and keep it, so I quickly ran out before she changed her mind.
“Two hours, two hours….”
Crack-clap-clap-clap-
clap-crack-clap-clap-clap-clap-clap-clap-clap-clap-clap-clap-clap-clap-clap-clap-clap-clap-clap-tap- The steps toward the outside of the station became impatient. It’s not a very big city, but it’s infinitely large for the short legs of a nine-year-old boy.
Clap, clap, clap!
“mister! Station worker!”
“Keuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck?! Oh, master? No, where are you at this early in the morning? Why are your eyes like that? I don’t think the train drivers-”
“Okay, please open the door!” “Get out!”
“Yes yep!”
Gigigi-ik-
“Do you know the way to the temple? “If you don’t know, can I guide you?”
“It’s a temple…”
For a moment, all sorts of things that could be done in a temple came to mind, but considering the time limit of two hours, it was impossible.
There is something faster and more certain than that.
“Station attendant.”
“yes.”
I said to the sleepy-eyed station attendant, looking up with the bright eyes of a boy who still had one left.
“Do you know where the oil depot is in this city? “It’s a coal storage place or a place that handles fuel!”
I was pure, really.
As someone who was part of a group of terrorists called Railship, I was just thinking purely.
****
